Computer systems having graphical user interfaces have been available for several years, and have become quite popular because of their ease of use. One popular type of graphical user interface is known by the name MicroSoft WINDOWS.TM. which operates on IBM PC's (personal computers), or other compatible types of personal computers. Another graphical user interface is known by the name Apple MACINTOSH.TM., which was the first graphical user interface that was commonly available for personal computer users.
Both the Apple MACINTOSH.TM. and the MicroSoft WINDOWS.TM. are capable of displaying relatively small graphic symbols, known as "icons", which when displayed on a computer monitor, each represent a particular computer program or feature of a computer program. A "mouse" or other type of pointing device (e.g., cursor control keys) is typically used to place the cursor over the particular icon desired, then a key or a button is clicked or depressed to begin execution of that particular computer program or feature. Once execution begins, a "window" appears upon the computer's monitor, which typically appears to be a rectangular or square area of the monitor's display that is bounded by a border, and may be of a different background color to more readily delineate that portion of the display. In addition, for certain application computer programs, the particular window may contain a title bar, scroll bars (horizontal and/or vertical), and boxes such as a "Zoom" box or a "Close" box (i.e., a Zoom box allowing a selected area of the display to be magnified, and a Close box enabling this particular window to be closed or "minimized" back to its icon form).
Any particular window can require the entire monitor display area, or can be of a smaller size so that more than one window can appear on the monitor at any particular time. More than one window can be operating or "open" at a given time, however, it can be arranged so that only one open window is displayed on the monitor, and other open windows are merely available but not being displayed (i.e., they are "behind" the first visible window). In the example of a word processor computer program, the visible window would be the document that is presently being edited or created, and other invisible open windows would represent other documents that can be easily accessed by the computer's user by mere commands of the mouse or keyboard, however, which are not visible until called for by the computer's user. On the other hand, the word processor computer program may allow portions of more than one window to be visible at one time on the monitor, and text from one document (in the first window) could be edited and perhaps copied into a second open and visible window, thereby being placed within the text of a second document. In such a circumstance, at least two windows would be displayed on the monitor at a particular moment, and each window would have its own border, title bar, scroll bars, and close box.
The more powerful personal computers presently available are capable of being used with a high-memory capacity optical disk storage device known as a "CD-ROM". Such CD-ROM's can contain a great amount of memory capacity and can even represent information in the form of an encyclopedia. A computer program that would be displaying the information from such a CD-ROM encyclopedia would typically have a window or two to display the text of a particular subject that is called up by the computer's user from the encyclopedia's data memory. In addition, many such CD-ROM displaying computer programs have the capability of showing a brief movie that is stored on the CD-ROM as part of its encyclopedic data. For example, a feature of the Apple MACINTOSH.TM. known as "QUICK-TIME" can be used to display a movie upon the computer monitor. Using QUICK-TIME.TM., a new window is opened upon the monitor screen so that the computer's user is made aware that a movie is about to be displayed at that portion of the screen.
The most common way of making the computer user aware of which portion of the monitor's screen to expect a movie is to display a blank area of a different background color having a border, so that the computer's user can easily discern that this portion of the screen is being prepared for the new movie data about to be provided to the monitor. As the movie is being displayed, QUICK-TIME.TM. allows manipulation of that movie by the use of small "buttons" that are located near this movie window. These buttons allow such features as Fast-Forward, Reverse, Pause, and Stop or Close. Since the movie being shown is in digital format, all of these features are readily available to the computer's user, and can be used much as a person controlling a video cassette recorder in playback mode. Once the movie is finished, the application computer program can either automatically close that window, or it can be manually closed under the computer user's control.
As related above, QUICK-TIME.TM. is a feature of an Apple MACINTOSH.TM. graphical user interface. A similar movie-type feature is available with MicroSoft WINDOWS.TM., and is known as "VIDEO FOR WINDOWS.TM.".
Many of the computer programs presently available for windows-type computers (e.g., Apple MACINTOSH.TM. and MicroSoft WINDOWS.TM.) use a feature known as "Help", which is a form of assistance given to the computer's user while the computer program is actually being executed. The Help feature is typically used by a computer's user in lieu of reading about a particular feature of the computer program in a software manual. Usually, the Help feature will help the computer user to learn how to use the different features of a computer program, and how to navigate from one feature to another.
In some instances, a Help feature will use a movie-type window such as Apple's QUICK-TIME.TM. to show a person or other animated character talking about various features of the computer program that are available to the user at that particular portion of the computer program. In this instance, QUICK-TIME.TM. can show a person or animated figure within the movie window as well as output audio information to the speaker in the computer so that the person's words can be heard by the computer's user. The person or character within the window can even point to certain portions of the monitor, such as different various buttons that may be visible at that time around the edges of the displayed screen. The person or character within the movie window, however, is limited to the confines of that window and cannot actually move around on the rest of the display to more precisely point out the different buttons that can be used by the computer's user. In addition, if more than one window is presently open, the movie actor or character cannot move from one window to the next to more readily emphasize certain features of the computer program.